January 1, 2017 — The Mar-Kee Group announced that 10-time National Automotive Dealers Association speaker and President of the Mar-Kee Group, David Martin, will present a sales training workshop, “Marketing Opens the Door: Closing Seals the Deal” at the

“The focus of the automotive industry is currently on creating customers through digital marketing. However, as important as that is, dealerships are discovering that is only half the battle. Ultimately, the sales must still be closed,” said Martin.

Co-Founder Richard Keeney feels that “today’s internet-savvy consumers represent a new challenge to dealerships and many are unprepared to successfully deal with them.”

YESTERDAY’S “CLOSING” TECHNIQUES don't always WORK WITH today's TECH-SAVVY BUYERS, WHO sometimes KNOW MORE ABOUT THE PRODUCT THAN THE SALESPEOPLE.

This highly interactive workshop will examine and discuss common objections heard from customers and share multiple ways to professionally address each one. At the conclusion of the workshop attendees can be confident that they will return to their dealership with the missing piece of the closing puzzle.

The Mar-Kee Group is excited to be a part of this year’s NADA centennial celebration.

Workshop covers:

• 9 keys to handle objections from today’s tech-savvy buyers
• 6 ways to eliminate objections before they surface
• Professional responses to objections that are routinely heard from customers

Workshop schedule:

Thursday, 1/26 - 2:30pm in Room 211-213

Saturday, 1/28 - 10:30am in Room 278-280

Sunday, 1/29 - 10:45am in Room 203-205

Not Going to NADA?

About The Mar-Kee Group:
David Martin and Richard Keeney of The Mar-Kee Group are honored to celebrate 20 years as one of the nation’s leading automotive sales training companies. They have over 70 years of combined sales, management, and training experience, with over 4,700 dealerships served in the US, Canada, Europe and Australia. The Mar-Kee Group provides multiple online training options as well as customized in-dealership training. For more information, visit our website at markeegroup.com or call 888-300-4629.

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How to Score Big at Handling Sales Objections by David Martin

Any discussion on objections would have to start with a simple, yet profound, premise.

Contrary to what some may think, closing is not a singular event. It is a process; a process that sometimes starts before you and the customer ever see one another.

For example: If you and/or your dealership have positive online reviews, customers may already have a favorable impression of what they can expect from doing business with you before you are even contacted. That alone can reduce the number of objections you will receive, or in some cases even eliminate them.

It is important to recognize that the closing process begins the moment you have contact – whether in person, on the phone, by email or chat – and will continue until the sale is made or not.

Why? Everything affects everything! All that you say and do, your communications skills, your attitude, your product knowledge, your powers of observation and insight – it all matters. Maybe the best way to illustrate the importance of this process is to use a football analogy:

Let’s assume your favorite football team is on the opponent’s one yard line. On the next play, they punch it in for a touchdown. In the world of football, that is certainly closing the deal, right? But wouldn’t you agree that the 9-play, 79-yard drive that put them on the one yard line is what created the chance to score?

Of course. If they had fumbled the ball during the drive or suffered an interception, they would have lost the opportunity to score. And so it is with us. It is all the things we say or don’t say, do or don’t do, that puts us in the position to “score.”

If you are going to close a sale, you will have to deal with objections. The one thing we know is that if you have customers, you will have resistance. The only question is how much, in what form, and when.

Most of us have read articles with catchy titles like “Objections Are Your Friends” or “You Should Welcome Objections.” REALLY? Try convincing salespeople of that. Most salespeople I know are looking for that perfect customer. You know, the one who comes in and says “You have the exact vehicle I want. Money is no object because I just won the PowerBall. I’m in a big hurry, so let’s get this done quickly. And please just take my current vehicle off my hands. I don’t really care what you do with it.” Never happens, does it?

But the fact is, if salespeople cannot professionally and calmly respond to objections, that is simply a weakness that no one can afford, because today’s marketplace will not tolerate that kind of shortcoming.

The Mar-Kee Group is proud to celebrate 21 years of outstanding Sales, Service, and Management Training.

6 Objections That Successful Salespeople Have Mastered by David Martin

The world of sales training has a significant amount of information on dealing with objections. In fact, I would be shocked if anyone with more than 90 days in the business has not received training on handling them from someone. However, we too often hear salespeople say “But I’ve done that training,” as if training is something you do once and you’re set for life. That’s just silly.

No one can MASTER a subject just by hearing it once or twice. As Dave Anderson says, “Until you’re perfect, it’s not redundant.” Salespeople and managers should never be complacent about their ability to successfully handle such an important part of their job.

In dealing with objections, we need to examine what they are and what they aren’t. We need to be clear on why we hear them and what they really mean, to both the customer and to us. We need to diligently try to minimize or even eliminate objections before they come up.

If we aren’t able to do that, it becomes imperative that we know the 12 psychological keys to handle almost any objection. And we need to be very comfortable with professional, non-confrontational responses to the specific objections we hear on a regular basis.

The key is to follow the old Boy Scouts motto - Be prepared! Seems basic, but this actually holds true for about anything worth doing.

In training workshops, I often ask salespeople how many different objections they have heard in their careers. The answers usually range from dozens to hundreds. However, when you break it down, there are only 6 primary objections:

1. "Your price is too high"
2. "That is not enough for my trade"
3. "I have a better deal elsewhere"
4. "I have additional shopping or research to do"
5. "I need to speak to my spouse"
6. "I want to think about it"

Some variations of these 6 objections make up over 90% of the ones we hear. My point about being prepared is that if there are only 6, you know what is coming. To not be ready to give a thoughtful, non-confrontational response instead of a knee-jerk reaction is just plain silly.

TIP: Pick out one objection per week that you want to tackle, choose the professional response that sounds best coming from you, learn it and rehearse it 20 or 30 times, and you’re set to go. Then the next week, choose another objection and follow the same steps. Six weeks later you’re ready to respond to over 90% of the objections you are going to hear. Give it a try!

The Mar-Kee Group is proud to celebrate 20 years of outstanding Sales, Service, and Management Training.

Role Play Your Way to Success by David Martin

Digital marketing is understandably the current rage in the automotive industry. Using software programs that can identify in-market customers and properly price position vehicles makes all the sense in the world. It is hard to imagine operating a modern dealership without the tools that are available to dealers today.

However, this is still a people-to-people business and customers must be closed. If you have customers, you will have resistance to buying. The only question is when. Today’s internet junkie “researchaholics” represent a new challenge to dealerships and many are unprepared to successfully deal with them.

Yesterday’s “closing” techniques no longer work with tech-savvy buyers, who often know more about the product than the salespeople.

Too many salespeople are unprepared when it comes to objections. Consequently they react to what the customer says, rather than calmly and professionally responding. Despite what some salespeople think, there are only six primary objections that they deal with on a daily basis.

To NOT be fully prepared to respond makes no sense and results in lost sales every day.

•Minimizing or eliminating them before the customer brings them up

•Understanding and mastering the keys for handling objections

•Perfecting the responses that will motivate customers to keep the sales momentum going

Sales managers should pick out one commonly heard objection each week and role play it, with every salesperson participating.
Give them a week to prepare and on Friday morning put them through their paces. Most will practice all week to avoid embarrassment.

Because repetition is the key to learning, they will master a professional response to each of the major objections in just six weeks.

Currently, it is estimated that the automotive repair industry is experiencing a shortage of 25,000 technicians.

That number will likely worsen as the demand for auto mechanics is expected to increase by at least 9% in the next five years.

And it’s not just the automotive industry. RV, marine and bus service operations are also actively and aggressively looking for mechanics, and they see the automotive industry as fertile ground for poaching.

Within the automotive franchise world, there is a cannibalization occurring where dealers are hiring away technicians from other dealerships with obscene signing bonuses, guaranteed earnings, generous benefit packages and more.

Dealers have to compete in that game, but they also must begin to think and act creatively to not only acquire additional technical staff, but to retain their existing staff.

Compensation plans, work schedules, benefits and other intangible elements need to be examined and implemented.

If a dealership wants to grow in service and parts revenue, they must have increased throughput.

If a dealership wants to grow in new and used vehicle sales, they also must have increased throughput to be able to PDI the new vehicles, recon the used vehicles, and install any up-sells.

How are you attracting and keeping top talent?

Hope to see you at our upcoming workshop in Vegas for The NADA Convention & Expo:

Role Play: The Ultimate Sales Tool by David Martin

I am often asked what I think of role play as a method to teach salespeople (and others) how to handle their jobs. We have to remember that it can be really stressful to “perform” in front of our peers because no one wants to be self-conscious and uncomfortable. My answer is usually “Great tool but too often handled incorrectly.”

In my opinion, role play can be the most powerful teaching method in the manager’s arsenal.

Unfortunately, many of them treat role play as a game of “gotcha,” where they try to catch salespeople off-guard and embarrass them. This reminds me of Zig Ziglar’s statement, “Too many managers try to catch salespeople doing something wrong instead of trying to catch them doing something right.”

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When managers handle role play incorrectly, it becomes counter-productive and damages morale and productivity.

The purpose of role play is to have people practice certain situations with others in the dealership so they become relaxed and comfortable with those circumstances.

The alternative is for them to continue practicing on your customers and you know how expensive that can be. Dealers spend far too much money to generate prospects, only to have them meet an unprepared salesperson.

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We have all heard the saying “Repetition is the key to learning.”

That is actually the psychology behind role play that makes it such an effective learning tool. When an individual has said or done something enough times, it becomes instinctive and natural. That will always be better than “winging it.” There are certain areas of the sales process that require role play:

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Properly greeting the customer to set the stage for engagement

Asking the right questions to uncover needs & desires

Making great product presentations to create mental ownership

Professionally responding to objections, instead of merely reacting to them​​

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Additional tips:

There are also ideal days of the week to role play. For instance, it is counter-productive to walk into a sales meeting and announce “We are doing role play today.” It causes most to freak out, especially your weaker salespeople who need it the most. Instead, on Monday morning announce that in Friday’s sales meeting that everyone will be role playing – no exceptions. You pick the subject and give guidance in how the situation should be handled. It may be a good idea to get them to pair up with another salesperson so they will have a “role play partner.”

Over the next several days most of them (at least the smart ones) will spend their free time practicing. When Friday comes they are pumped and ready to perform! This goes a long way to reducing the natural resistance we normally get from salespeople.

Marine dealers who are interested in more ideas on incorporating role play and creating a powerful sales team — please consider attending my workshop at MDCE.

It will culminate with having the entire audience actively involved in role playing with each other to illustrate how fun, easy and productive it can be. You will never view role play the same again.

The Mar-Kee Group is proud to celebrate 21 years of outstanding Sales, Service, and Management Training for Automotive, Boat & RV Dealers.

Top 3 Factors Women Consider When Purchasing a Vehicle by David Martin

Women buy over 50% of the vehicles sold in the U.S. and heavily influence upwards of 85% of all automotive purchases.

If these statistics surprise you – they shouldn’t. Women make up over 50% of the adult population and their influences are felt in most households.

According to recent studies, the top 3 reasons women purchase vehicles are:

#1 Perception of Treatment

Contrary to popular belief, women are not only interested in color and comfort, most of them look for the same things as men do– fuel efficiency, design, safety, technology, and price. However, the top factor of whether they buy or not is heavily dependent on their perceived treatment. Obviously, treating her with utmost respect is essential. Most women have done their homework, so patiently answering their questions will go a long way to winning her over. Women intuitively are drawn to salespeople who put up their smartphones and focus on their needs and desires.

#2 Money

No surprise here. Women are cost and budget conscious and they want to feel good about the price they pay. Dealerships that pay attention to their needs and don’t try to bully them into exceeding their budgets will close the deal and win.

#3 Dealer Reputation

Women, more than men, pay close attention to reputation. They are three times more likely to read and leave reviews than their male counterparts. It is very important to them to make informed decisions on everything they buy, and that is magnified with big-ticket purchases.

Are you overlooking your women buyers?

The Mar-Kee Group provides comprehensive sales training programs to effectively guide your salespeople through the sales process and come out on top. We offer superior sales training in the car, boat, and RV industries.